Tantalus Road: Sun, 17 Apr

[Carne]

Not sure if there are any other HI riders who might see this, but I'm planning on riding Tantalus tomorrow afternoon. I'm meeting up with a couple guys at the NEX at 1pm, then heading out for the ride.

...For all others, I will try to take a couple pictures tomorrow.

[Carne]

Today was a great day to ride.

Our ride started at the NEX where I met up with three other riders; one guy from work (Bobby) who rides a Super Motard, and two AF guys that I recently met at bible study who rode a ZX-6R (John) and an R-6 (Jessie). We left the NEX to make our way to Tantalus Rd.

Tantalus Rd and Round top drive winds its way up in the hills which overlook Honolulu. There are several spots along the road where you can look back down at the city, the ocean and some good views of Diamond Head. If you check out the link below, you can see a map of the road:

http://www.motorcycleroads.us/roads/hi_tr.html

The website says that this ride is about 10miles, and describes the route as "Twisty." Twisty is an understatement, there are several 180 degree 10mph turns. The road is only two lanes with no shoulder, but there are several spots throughout the whole route where you can pull off on the side of the road.

Here is a shot looking up the hill from one of the turn sections where we stopped.


And looking down the hill, you can see the next turn


The token shot of Diamond Head


There was quite a bit of traffic this afternoon, so we had pulled off to the side to get a little distance behind the cars ahead. Unfortunately several other cars drove up while we waited. The route was quite popular today, a mix of cars, bicycles and other motorcycles. Depending on where you are, finding good passing space (without pissing off the folks driving cars) can be difficult at times; but fortunately several drivers pulled off to let us past.

The road steadily winded up the hill for about 5 miles until a stretch which felt like we were on a ridge (I need to go back again), then began winding its way back down the other side for the next 5 miles. I was riding 3rd in line taking it easy as this was my first time on the road; and Jessie followed as he was also new to the road. Bobby was up front, and after he got past a car, I didn't see him. I was usually able to see John on his blue ZX-6R until I got stuck behind a car.

Shortly after we started our descent (on the map it is about 1/2 way through), I came up on another of those extremely sharp left hand turns and saw John's bike laying on its side. He was ok, but he couldn't ride the bike back home because of a broken shift lever. A couple who lived in one of the houses came up and told him he could leave his bike in their driveway until he was able to come back with his truck.

Here are a couple pictures from the ride back down the hill. Yep there are two bikes and three riders.




With his bike waiting for him, I gave John a ride down the hill and back to his house to get his truck. Bobby took off back towards Kaneohe. Despite the little mishap, the ride today was good and definitely worth riding again sometime. I am soooo happy that I brought my REX with me to Hawaii.

[Mike L]

Cool pics and report, Carne!! I hope John can get his bike fixed quickly and get back in the saddle again. I am really looking forward to our visit in July -- you are going to have to show me some of those roads!!

[Crazy Legs]

Carne, I'd like to see some more ride reports with pics please